How adopters’ and foster carers’ perceptions of ‘family’ affect communicative openness in post-adoption contact interactions

Fiona Macleod; Lesley Storey; Teresa Rushe; Michele Kavanagh; Francis Agnew; Katrina McLaughlin

doi:10.1177/03085759211060715

How adopters’ and foster carers’ perceptions of ‘family’ affect communicative openness in post-adoption contact interactions

Fiona Macleod^*, Lesley Storey, Teresa Rushe, Michele Kavanagh, Francis Agnew, Katrina McLaughlin

^*Corresponding author for this work

Queen's University Belfast

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

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Abstract

This article explores the constructions of communicative openness following adoption. Data from three waves of interviews with six adoptive mothers and four foster carers were collected, transcribed verbatim and analysed in keeping with a social constructivist grounded theory methodology. The results show that the way ‘family’ is constructed can both facilitate and impede communicative openness. Those who hold a fluid, child-centred concept of family, are willing to construct it as different and can accept the ebb and flow of family membership intuitively and view such openness as a natural part of caring for children. Those with a more traditional, nuclear construction of family may associate adoption with fear, a sense of biological related competition and the need to control the controllable, all of which act as barriers to communicative openness. The study demonstrates that communicative openness is person and context sensitive and emphasises the need to think creatively and flexibly about the very nature of family.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	430-441
Number of pages	12
Journal	Adoption & Fostering Journal
Volume	45
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/03085759211060715
Publication status	Published - 22 Dec 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We would like to thank the Post-Adoption and Fostering Teams with whom we have had the pleasure of working and, specifically, the social workers who supported participant recruitment, and the adoptive mothers and foster carers who were so willing to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences. The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.

Keywords

adoption
adoptive parents
Communicative openness
construction of family
foster carers
parenting

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Health(social science)
Social Psychology
Sociology and Political Science
Law

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10.1177/03085759211060715Licence: CC BY-NC

How adopters’ and foster carers’ perceptions of ‘family’ affect communicative openness in post-adoption contact interactions
Copyright 2021 the authors. This is an open access Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction for non-commercial purposes, provided the author and source are cited.
Final published version, 163 KBLicence: CC BY-NC

Cite this

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title = "How adopters{\textquoteright} and foster carers{\textquoteright} perceptions of {\textquoteleft}family{\textquoteright} affect communicative openness in post-adoption contact interactions",

abstract = "This article explores the constructions of communicative openness following adoption. Data from three waves of interviews with six adoptive mothers and four foster carers were collected, transcribed verbatim and analysed in keeping with a social constructivist grounded theory methodology. The results show that the way {\textquoteleft}family{\textquoteright} is constructed can both facilitate and impede communicative openness. Those who hold a fluid, child-centred concept of family, are willing to construct it as different and can accept the ebb and flow of family membership intuitively and view such openness as a natural part of caring for children. Those with a more traditional, nuclear construction of family may associate adoption with fear, a sense of biological related competition and the need to control the controllable, all of which act as barriers to communicative openness. The study demonstrates that communicative openness is person and context sensitive and emphasises the need to think creatively and flexibly about the very nature of family.",

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AU - Agnew, Francis

AU - McLaughlin, Katrina

N1 - Funding Information: We would like to thank the Post-Adoption and Fostering Teams with whom we have had the pleasure of working and, specifically, the social workers who supported participant recruitment, and the adoptive mothers and foster carers who were so willing to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences. The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2021.

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AB - This article explores the constructions of communicative openness following adoption. Data from three waves of interviews with six adoptive mothers and four foster carers were collected, transcribed verbatim and analysed in keeping with a social constructivist grounded theory methodology. The results show that the way ‘family’ is constructed can both facilitate and impede communicative openness. Those who hold a fluid, child-centred concept of family, are willing to construct it as different and can accept the ebb and flow of family membership intuitively and view such openness as a natural part of caring for children. Those with a more traditional, nuclear construction of family may associate adoption with fear, a sense of biological related competition and the need to control the controllable, all of which act as barriers to communicative openness. The study demonstrates that communicative openness is person and context sensitive and emphasises the need to think creatively and flexibly about the very nature of family.

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How adopters’ and foster carers’ perceptions of ‘family’ affect communicative openness in post-adoption contact interactions

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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